deforestation in Brasil

Today I decided it was time to spend some hours on a serious topic, so I collect some pieces of information about the deforestation of the rainforest in Brazil.

This is what Lourenço told me about it. Lourenço is doing his B-degree in biology at USP, the Universidade de São Paulo, which is thought to be one of the best universities in Brazil. He also told me some curiosities about university traditions, but I’ll tell abut them later on.

Deforestation in Brazil

The Amazon is a vast and majestic rainforest, the largest one remaining on the Earth, teeming with an estimated quarter of all known land species. The jaguar, the pink river dolphin, the sloth, the world's largest flower, a monkey the size of a toothbrush and a spider the size of a baseball are just a few of the species that we know about - there are many more yet to be discovered.

It is also home to over 20 million people including hundreds of indigenous peoples, some of which have never been contacted by the ‘outside world’.

And finally, the Amazon stores 80 to 120 billion tons of carbon, helping to stabilize the planet's climate.

Brazil once had the highest deforestation rate in the world and as of 2005 till has the larger area of forest removed annually. Since 1970, over 600.000 square kilometers of rainforest have been destroyed. This was due to economical reasons: the government lack support to built highways and colonization programs, so the farmers made their own politic and went deep into the forest to get new lands for agriculture and animal breeding. In 2001, the Amazon was approximately 5.4 million square kilometers, which is only 87% of the Amazon’s original state.

In recent years, however, Brazilian deforestation rate is considerably declined. Despite the economic growth (about 40%), the forest has been protected by the enforcement of new environmental law, incentives in utilizing already deforested lands, a more severe monitoring from satellites and less profits coming from agriculture. The last, but not least, factor involved in the change  is the expansion of the protected natural areas and the indigenous reserved. Also the strong criticism that came from private sector companies and the emerging awareness of the values of ecosystem afforded by the Amazon play a role in the change of the deforestation trend.

http://www.mongabay.com/brazil.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation_in_Brazil

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/forests/amazon/

Discovering Rio

13.30

After all this samba I am starving! Dancing with pretty ladies is fun but I am exhausted. It is time to have some food. I am very surprised by the fact that there are so many sushi restaurants here in Rio. I didn't know it but in Brazil there are a lot of Japanese immigrants, and of course fresh seafood everyday. Obrigado, but no more sushi for me! I am going to try the churrascaria João told me about.

19.00

Oh my God I love this place. I must thank João for suggesting me this amazing restaurant: it is called Porcão and it is one of the best Rio's churrascarias, aka meat heaven! Vegans stay away. It is an all you can eat restaurant, and what is original is that when you seat you get two cards: the green one “sim gracias”, which means that you want more food, and the red one “não, obrigado” that you use when you are full! My green card has been literally my passport to paradise, and since I am not a guy who easily back down, passadores covered me whit meat. What can I say about it? It is delicious, cooked and served in huge sticks from which waiters (oops passadores) carve the meat directly in your plate.

Typical side dishes are rice (arroz branco), manioc and vegetables of all kind. I also tasted the famous fejoada, which is a stew of beans and pork. Delicious!

I had a huge meal, so I decided to have a walk. Here in Rio beaches are beautiful: sandy, wide and free so people can sunbath, surf, play volleyball, dance and eat without any worries. The most famous ones are of course Ipanema beach and Copacabana beach.

Ipanema is known all over the world thanks to the song “Garota de Ipanema”. You may not recall te title in Portuguese, but it is unlikely you have never heard it! Maybe the Portuguese name do not sound familiar to you but I bet you've heard it at least once!

Copacabana is a little way from Ipanema, with beautiful golden sand and a lot of accommodation for tourists.

Beach going is a lifestyle: fio dental bikinis, futevoley and, here again, lot of food! Coconut juice drunk directly from the coconut, empanadas, and typical coktails such as Caipirinha. Since it was Spritz time, I decided to have a Caipirinha, made of cachaça (sugar cane rum), sugar and lime.

Brazilian beaches are wonderful but I feel there is something much more beyond them in this country that is worthy to be discovered.

I want to find out a first-hand truth about the favelas, the sexual tourism, the Amazonian forest which is being deforesting and the biofuel policy.

I will write down everything, I promise!

http://www.youtube.com/v/VbXNmIvWa1c&fs=1&source=uds&autoplay=1

November 5^th 2012, 10.30

I admit it .... I'm a terrible dancer but now that I have arrived in Brazil I can’t not improvise a few steps of samba! :)

The thing that surprised me is that the majority of the population lives in poverty and although they do not have enough food and money, they do not ever miss the smile and joy to live!

João, the owner of the guesthouse where I stay, I advice me a lot of places to visit and one of these is the Sambadrome!

http://www.concierge.com/travelguide/riodejaneiro/photos/photoview/60849

The Sambadrome was designed by Oscar Niemeyer in 1984 and in the last two years, it has been expanded to contain more people. It was created to became the temple of samba during Carnival of Rio, in fact every year, in February, the most important samba school parade in it!

Video: http://article.wn.com/view/2012/02/20/In_pictures_Rio_de_Janeiro_carnival/

I didn’t know samba is so famous in Brazil and in particular in Rio and Sant Paul! João say me that in Rio there is an organization of the most important samba school called “Liga Independente das Escolas de Samba do Rio de Janeiro” founded in the same year of Sambadrome, but the tradition to dancing samba is more older than the organization. Samba schools are divided in groups, from the most talented to less, they focus every efforts to preparation of Carnival, they choose the topic to build allegorical wagons then they choose the music that play the band and the choreography but only the most famous groups dancing in Sambadrome, the others parading in Avenida Rio Branco, that is a long street in the centre of Rio. Moreover every year, before the beginning of Carnival there is the incoronation of the Carnival’s queen, and this year the queen of 2013 is Evelyn Bastos, she is 19 and dancing for the Mangueira school, one of the most popular samba school!

http://elsolonline.com/noticias/view/153418/conoce-a-evelyn-bastos-la-reina-del-carnaval-de-rio-2013-

Brazil is beautiful!!:)

Japan is great, but time has come to go on and continue my travel around the world. The next stop will be…. BRAZIL! I’m so excited to go there, in my dreams it is the land of samba, caipiroska, pluvial forest sandy beaches, hot and.. really handsome girls! ;)

I can’t look forward to the landing of the plane, so I’ll be able to jump out of it and find out whether my dreams are just illusion or if they are reality! News from Rio de Janeiro coming soon =)

Berto

November 3rd, 2012

02.00

I’m back. What a weird dinner! I was looking for a restaurant in my hotel street but unfortunately there weren’t any. I had to walk for a while but finally I found this little and cute place called Fusion.

Firstly I didn’t pay attention to the name of the restaurant but when I looked the menu everything was clear...a fusion of Italian and Japanese cuisine. I’ve never heard something like that!

It seems like Italian cuisine is having a huge success here in Japan and people are going crazy for that. Anyway...I decided to stay classic asking for some sushi: six nighiri and six uramaki.

I noticed immediately the absence of the napkin on my sit, I thought they may have forgotten it, but looking at the other tables it was clear that in Japan people don’t use napkins...

I can assure you the Japanese food we are use to eat in Italy is just a bad copy of the original one; eating my dish I had an explosion of flavours in my mouth.

There wasn’t even need to ask more wasabi, my passion, because it was already inside the rise and fish rolls. The waiter, a young and polite man, told me wasabi must be present inside sushi and he was surprised that outside Japan we eat it in a different way.

I finished the dinner really late and I was the last customer inside the restaurant so, drinking my sake, I decided to ask some questions to the waiter. His name is Akinobu and he’s a 21 years old student.

He confirmed that during the last 4-5 years Italian food is spreading in Japan and, on television, there are a lot of cuisine programmes with famous chefs cooking strange dishes in which Italian and Japanese cuisine are mixed.

It was even more interesting what he told me about his job and about the absence of unemployment in his country!

He started to work at 18, as the majority of Japanese guys. Here turning eighteen means becoming adults, having more responsibilities and being independent, even economically.

But, the most incredible thing Akinobu told me was that in Japan the occupation is near 100%!

The government prefers to create useless jobs instead of having unemployed people, you can find, for example, a person who’s job is to call the elevator and to invite you to enter.

Not having a job is a huge dishonour in Japan!

This is it. The first day is gone! Keep following my blog and I’d love to see a lot of comments!

Bye guys!

I suggest you to see this short video of “Wasabi” a French movie with Jean Renò...I just love this scene!!

 

02/11/2012

08.00

Today, the destination is Kamakura!

Someone has never heard of this small coast town?...no?

Kamakura is an hour by train from Tokyo. It’s famous for its friendly atmosphere, for its zen temples and also for the National Heritage Museum in Kamakura.

…Let’s go!:)

10.30

Here I am in Kamakura! Starts the tour…..

11.00

I decided to visit the sanctuary of Tsurugaoka Hachimangu! It’s only 15 minutes walk from the east exit of Kamakura’s station, the opening hours: 9:00-16:00, closed on Mondays and at the end of each month, admission is 100 yen.

Do you like it?...it’s Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine

It is the symbol of the old capital, it was founded by Minamoto Yoritoshi, ancestor of the shogun Minamoto Yoritomo, the founder of the Kamakura feudal government that ruled Japan from 1192 to 1333.

15.00

As a second destination for today I decided to visit the Great Buddha, or "Daibutsu" but it will better for me to hurry up before the temple of Kotoku-in closes, because the opening hours is 7:00 to 18:00 (17:30 from October to March).

17.00

After the travel by bus, I'm just down to Daibutsu-mae. The admission is 200 yen and the supplement is 20 yen to access the interior of the Great Buddha. Let’s go!

SPECTACULAR!!..... This is the statue of the Great Buddha!!

It is a giant statue 11.4 meters height and with a 122 tons weight.It represents the Buddha in the lotus position in the sky AND it is made of bronze plates mounted on a hollow structure, which allows enterING inside the monument!

….. I think that's enough for today, the day has been full of emotions!!

18.30
I am in the train that takes me back to Kamakura, in Tokyo and I am reading a book about the religions in Japan. I feel ignorant, after the day I spent in the temple, I realised that I don’t know anything about this topic!!

Which would you say to be the most common religion in Japan?

It’s the Shintoism that is based on cult of ancestors and nature, it’s organized in about 200 sects.

In the end of the 18 hundred, it became the official/state religion and the figure of the imperator became sacred, every cities were obliged to practice the cult of the Shinto temples. But thanks to the Constitution of 1947, everyone could practice the religion that they wanted and the imperator had renounced to be sacred.

The second religion is the Buddhism, which is also organized in sects. There is also a percentage of Christians, represented by Protestants, Catholics and Greek-orthodox, but it is professed by less than 4% of the population.

19.25

…..now I leave you because I’m going to arrive at/in Tokyo!:)

Welcome in Japan!!

                                                                                                                                            29/10/2012

09.00

Japan, here I am! After a twelve hour flight I finally landed and I am ready to visit this beautiful country, despite the jet lag!

22.00

Ok, maybe I needed some rest. This bed is so comfy and the flight has been sooooo long. It is late to go and visit Tokyo, but I didn't want to waste more time in this hotel room, so I did my homework. Since I know very little of Japan, I googled it and now I know anything is worth to know about Japan. I can't wait to go outside and verify if all I've read it is true! Maybe it's better if I write down what I found out:

POLITICAL SYSTEM

Japan is a constitutional monarchy. It is similar to Great Britain system because the power of the Emperor is very limited. The Emperor is the symbol of the state and the unity of people, a ceremonial figurehead. Until the Second World War, he was considered divine, but the Constitution of 1946 limits his role as a consequence of Second World War defeat.

Nowadays, the Emperor is dropping down in popularity. He broke with traditions when he apologized in national live broadcast for the Fukushima disaster: he and the Government are considered responsible for this tragedy by newborn protester movements such as Scream for the Truth, which fights also against censure.

These movements are deeply innovative and Japanese people are not used to them: Japanese society is based on respect, power acceptance and this is proved by the fact that, even if it is a democratic country, from 1996 until now the Liberal-Conservative party has always won elections.

HOW TO BEHAVE:

• Never point your feet to your interlocutor or show them in public: feet are considered dirty and showing them is a sign of disrespect!
• Never blow your nose in public. Wait and sniffle until you're alone (weird... Hope I don't catch a cold)
• Take off your shoes before walking on a tatami
• Respect personal space: Japanese people avoid touching each other and are not comfortable with hugs and back slaps (it will be hard!)
• Never leave your chopsticks standing upright in a bowl of rice, this is how rice is offered to the dead. You won't find any napkin since they don't use them
• smoking is allowed everywhere but in streets! You will find provided places where to smoke or a kind white gloved Japanese man will ask you politely to put that cigarette out

23.15

Ok! It’s late, but my stomach it started to make some strange noises. I’m starving! The first restaurant I’ll see it’s going to be the right one! I’ve always been fond of Japanese cuisine and, in particular, I’m a wasabi addicted...the first step is to admit it! Tomorrow I’ll write everything!

30.12.2012

10.00

I found out that what is commonly fought about Japanese food is absolutely true: it is really good and hard to cook. Japanese cuisine is based on fish (since the state is an archipelago) and on rice, because it rains a lot. Rice fields are spread all around the islands. The Japanese diet is extremely healthy because most of the dishes are served raw and with no addiction of grease, such as oil or butter. It is reasonable that the average older age of population is around 88 years, with a slightly difference among men and women.

While I was going to the restaurant, even though I was starving, I managed to get a look to the buildings surrounding me. They are built in a particular way as so to be more “flexible” and to resist to the frequent earthquakes that hit the country. In fact, Japan is located over four different moving tectonic plates. Amazing!

13.00

I just went out to try getting to know new people. Japanese is really a difficult language to foreigners and the writing is totally incomprehensible! Luckily, I met some people who spoke a good English (better than the average Italians) and who were glad to talk with me about their country.

They told me that Japanese society is very strict, life, education, work everything is encircled in a deep sense of duty. When someone happens to fail something (e.g. a man loses his job) it is likely that he attempts suicide to avoid the shame of having to tell it to his wife or to his family. However, nowadays this sort of endeavours are rarer than in the past. A samurai used to act a “karakiri” act when he was blamed for something: he killed himself to avoid the shame of a failure.

It is to be said that, due to the strict rules working on Japanese society, the suicide’s rate is one of the highest in the world.